How To Be A Good Man
by art-badger
Summary: In the aftermath of Salvation, Marcus finds that his old life is intruding on his second chance. Things from his past he'd rather have left in the ashes of Judgment Day come to light and he has to make peace with that. Related to The Fate We Made.
1. Mistakes Made

Mistakes Made

Connor looked up from the pile of dossiers and reports stacked on his desk when Marcus' distinctive banging knock came. The way the door rattled in its frame with each knock suggested the cyborg was upset about something; he usually controlled his strength better.

"It's open, Marcus, I was about to radio for you anyway."

When the door opened the first thing that Connor noticed was a fantastic bruise across Marcus' face. It looked like someone had tried to beat his face in. The bruise would probably be gone in an hour but it represented some serious effort at skull-busting.

"What the hell happened to you? More trouble with the new guys from Georgia?" Some of the new shipment of Southern soldiers hadn't taken very well to Marcus and there'd been a few fights. Kyle had gotten two black eyes and one of the Georgians had lost two teeth. Marcus had restrained himself from doing more than disabling but he'd never ended up with anything like this before.

"Not quite. One of the Texans, that new Skynet tech: Walker. I wanted to talk with him about joining the pirate team. He had a wrench handy."

"How long until he can get back to work?" Connor wondered that Kate hadn't already radioed him to let him know the tech would be off duty for a day or two.

"I didn't hit him." Marcus dropped himself into one of the chairs in Connor's office. It protested his weight and the force with which he put himself into it.

Connor was momentarily confounded. Marcus had a lot of admirable qualities but his response to violence was violence. He hadn't seriously hurt anyone except Barnes and the other soldiers who had attacked Blair after the wedding to show their disapproval for her 'betrayal'. Still, Connor hadn't heard of a fight where Marcus didn't hit back when someone attacked him.

"You just let him beat the shit out of you?"

"Pretty much." Marcus shrugged, "I took the wrench away after a bit."

"What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?"

"That's why I came to find you. I need to talk about this. I don't really know –" Marcus paused and Connor could see the other man almost visibly organizing his thoughts. "We had a talk before he hit me. Walker had some news for me."

"He had news for you. And then he beat the shit out of you with a wrench. But only after he gave you this news." It did not, in fact, make more sense when he repeated it. He hadn't thought it would.

"Right."

"What kind of news was this?"

Marcus opened and closed his mouth twice before he twisted his face into a determined grimace and just spat it out. "Walker's my nephew. My sister's son. He has some issues with me related to that."

"You have a sister?" Connor blinked. That was the easiest of the thoughts flying through his head to deal with. He knew about Marcus' brother, Tyler. The one that had been killed during the stand-off that ended up with Marcus on death row.

"Alicia. Walker says she was with the Texas Resistance up 'til five years ago when a squad of 600's attacked her base and blew it to hell." Marcus' voice was usually under almost perfect control and his Texan accent almost undetectable. The control was slipping and Texas twanged through his words now, underscoring how unsettled he was.

"You never mentioned her." It was meant to be a question but it came out almost as an accusation. Connor was wondering what else Marcus might have not told anyone about his past. He shook his head sharply, it didn't matter. The past was over.

"I never mentioned a lot about me, Connor. Seein' as how it's all comin' back to bite me in the ass –"

"Or beat you in the face." He couldn't help himself. The cold stare that Marcus gave him was enough that he didn't have any more interjections. He also surreptitiously moved his chair back a few inches. "Why not talk to Blair about this? Not that I don't care, but shouldn't she hear this?"

"Blair thinks I'm a good guy, Connor. Walker reminded me that I'm not. Never have been."

"Kyle and Star might not agree. You're their hero. Hell, Marcus, you're Sarah's hero too." There weren't many kids on the base who didn't like Marcus. Most of the adults didn't approve of him but somehow, despite his incredible lack of interpersonal skills, the kids trusted him instantly and did whatever he told them to do. Marcus was the only one who could get Sarah Jeanette Connor to sit still for more then ten minutes, a feat even her parents had yet to master.

"They don't know me." Marcus shook his head and Connor noticed that the normal fire in his eyes was gone. They were empty, lifeless. For the first time since he'd met the man, Connor could almost believe Marcus was a machine. "First twenty-eight years of my life all I did was get drunk or high, fuck around and beat the shit out of anyone that pissed me off. I got my brother killed because I scared the piss out of some poor rookie cop and he started shootin'. Then I snapped his partner's neck when the fucker shot Tyler for tryin' to surrender."

"That fucker might have deserved it, but the other one didn't. He got off two shots and his hand was shakin' so bad they didn't come anywhere near me."

A gleam of something very dark showed in Marcus' eyes when he locked gazes with Connor and General John Connor couldn't stop a shiver going down his spine when he saw that light. "I didn't fuckin' blink and my hand wasn' shakin' when I put a bullet in that rookie's face."

Marcus reached out and tapped Connor on the right cheekbone, just under the eye. Connor almost flinched when the finger touched his skin. "Right there."

"Marcus –" Connor trailed off. He didn't know what to say. He'd known, Marcus had told him, that Marcus had been a murderer. He'd been on death row for killing two policemen. Connor remembered, vaguely, seeing the trial on TV and articles in the paper. Marcus had plead guilty, given a full confession. He didn't make any appeals on the death sentence which had gathered considerable attention. His execution was one of the fastest in state history.

"Good guys don't kill cops. They don't steal cars for fun, send people to the hospital, leave their sisters to whatever hell shows up at the door for them and never try to make things right. They don't make their sisters watch them get the needle for two counts of murder."

"Good guys save people's lives, Marcus." Connor didn't have time for his best soldier and his second in command to break down. "Good guys risk their lives so some asshole who set them on fire can survive when they should be dead. They walk into Skynet Central to save two kids that need them. They adopt little girls who don't have any parents and turn out to be the best damn father a little girl could ever want. You've been a good man since the first day I met you, Wright. I've never seen you be anything but a good man. What you did before, that was another life."

"It was still my life, Connor. It was me that did those things."

"What are you going to do, then? Give up? Going to go get yourself killed and leave Blair, Kyle, and Star on their own because you're not good enough for them?" Connor could see that hurt. Marcus flinched at the words and the dull look in his eyes cleared for a moment in a flash of anger.

"I'm not leaving them, ever."

"Walker might have heard about who you were, but we know who you are now. How is it going to help anyone if you waste this second chance you were so damn happy about getting because someone reminded you how bad you fucked up the first one?"

Marcus opened his mouth to speak but Connor cut him off. "You can't fix what happened with that cop, Marcus. Or with your sister." Even the spasm of pain that crossed Marcus' face didn't stop Connor. "All you can do is be a good man now that you have your chance. You were willing to give up your heart for a second chance three years ago. Now it's all just a pile of shit?"

"No." Slowly, Marcus shook his head and some measure of life was back in his eyes when he looked up. "You're right, even if I should break your face for half what you said."

"Better, Marcus." Connor grinned at the shorter man. "I'll know it's a really bad day when you don't threaten to break at least one of my bones."

The dark-haired cyborg laughed as he stood up and wrapped his hand around Connor's in a grip just short of painful. His blue eyes locked with Connor's emerald gaze and he gave that often-infuriating half smile of his. "Thanks, Connor."

"I'm always here if you need me, Marcus. If your head ever needs fixing, you haven't got a shortage of people willing to bang it back into shape." Connor sat back down as he watched Marcus leave the office. Walker could be a problem if the man kept causing issues with Marcus, but there was hope the man could come around. Family meant a lot these days and, given enough time, the young tech might learn that his uncle really was a different man then the one he'd heard about growing up.

Connor hoped that Marcus and his nephew would come to terms. Marcus deserved his second chance, no matter what he'd done in the old world.


	2. Letter

Things Past

"General Connor, you wanted to talk with me?" the young man standing in the door of Connor's office was average height with a lean build, dark hair and brown eyes. From a distance or the corner of an eye, Walker could easily be mistaken for his uncle. A bit taller, hair longer and his eyes were the wrong color. The most obvious difference from Marcus was that he was smiling. Walker had a cheerful, sunny smile that Connor imagined could brighten just about any situation the young man found himself in. Something about his eyes told Connor that Walker's smile and cheerful manner were lies, a shield to deflect away from whatever he really felt. Just like Marcus, though Connor thought the younger man's defense mechanism might win more friends then the angry, frightening one that Marcus used.

"Sit down, Walker. We have to discuss your posting here and your attitude toward one of my senior officers." Connor kept his voice steady and official. The bright, false smile on Walker's face faded and he nodded.

"This is about Wright, then."

"Major Wright and, yes, it is."

Walker slumped into the chair Connor indicated and scrubbed at his face with his hands. When he was done his face finally matched his eyes: empty and bleak. The artificial cheer was gone, showing the troubled man behind it. The resemblance to his uncle increased markedly.

"Lets get it over with then, sir."

****

Connor hadn't expected Marcus to be in his quarters when he knocked, but he stepped inside anyway.

"I thought you were helping convert the last Centaur we captured?"

Marcus scrubbed at his still-damp hair with the towel around his shoulders a few times while he peered up at Connor from the edge of the small bed he and Blair made do with. "I was. I decided to take an early break since we're ahead of schedule. If you thought I was there, how come you're here?"

The answer that Connor had ready got stuck in his mouth when he noticed the new tattoo on Marcus' left arm.

"An armadillo?" Connor couldn't see Marcus as having much in common with the burrowing little animals aside from both of them being heavily armored and not much appreciated.

The shorter man shrugged and twisted around to peer at the new tattoo himself. "She thought they were cute. She'd never let me get rid of the ones that lived in our yard." Marcus grunted to himself and pulled on a shirt, covering the tattoo. Connor thought the grunt might have been hiding something.

"Walker had something he gave me for you. I had a talk with him. I was going to leave it here for you, I didn't know if you'd want anyone around when you read it." As he spoke, Connor pulled the worn and much-folded letter out of his chest pocket and handed it over.

"Should I go?"

Marcus sat back on the bed slowly, looking at the letter in his hands. The word "Dumbass" was written on the front in a clear, precise hand. Slowly the dark-haired head shook a negative as slow-moving hands unfolded the letter.

Connor appropriated the chair from Marcus' work table, littered with bits of machinery and electronics, while the other man started to read the decades-old letter.

_I wanted to come see you. I've tried three times, but it never worked out. I know the things they're saying about you aren't true. You never would have killed anyone without a reason. I know you didn't shoot first._

_I want you to know that I'm doing well. I have a son now, he's going to be two years old soon. His name is Thomas. You'd like him, Marcus. They won't let me bring him to see you, I'm sorry. He reminds me of you sometimes, but he smiles more. He's always laughing. I wish you could meet him._

_Please don't worry about me, Marcus. Don't listen to what they say about you either. We both know who you are. I got your letter telling me what happened, I think I understand. I know I never wrote back until now. I didn't know what to say; I'm sorry._

_If I can't see you before this letter gets to you, just know that I'm thinking of you. You aren't alone, you big dumbass. I won't ever leave you alone._

_Love,_

_ Your Big Sister_

Marcus folded the letter closed and held it gently in both hands. He snorted. "Ten minutes doesn't make you my big sister, Ally."

"Marcus?" Connor's green eyes were full of concern and he slowly reached out a hand to grasp the other man's arm.

"It's good to know she didn't give up on me. She was lying through her teeth. Never could lie worth a damn, even in a letter. She just didn't want me to worry about her. Me, worry about her." A bitter laugh escaped the cyborg.

"She was the only decent human being in my family, John. The only one of us that wasn't a certifiable menace to society. The only one with more then half a brain or a withered little black heart."

"Why did she write Dumbass on your letter?" It might not be the most sensitive thing to say, but Connor thought it might distract Marcus from his sadder thoughts. He also just really wanted to know.

"Same reason I have it tattooed on my butt, Connor." Marcus grinned, "I lost a bet."

Connor blinked and eyed Marcus suspiciously. "One hell of a bet."

"You don't believe me? You want to see it?"

"I believe you." Connor's hurried statement drew another grin and a chuckle from the smaller man who, despite his offer, had not stirred from his seat on the bed.

"Are you going to talk to Walker?"

Marcus nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't let him beat you with a wrench this time."

"I won't. He was just trying to deal with some things. Aside from the wrench, he took meeting me pretty well. He knew it wouldn't really hurt me, anyway."

"Obviously, you can tell by how I didn't have him thrown in a storage closet for a few days."

"Nice of you, cutting him slack that way."

"Consider it a personal favor. Which you also owe me for not taking revenge for my broken ribs."

Marcus's face was a mask of innocence which, like his nephew's smile, was a complete lie. "I didn't mean to hurt you and I promised to be more careful with you from now on. I just forgot how fragile you are."

Connor's black stare finally broke Marcus' straight face and set the smaller man laughing. "Alright, so I bruised a few ribs. You're fine, you had a nice couple of hours on Kate's blue happy pills. Don't see why you're making a big deal out of it."

Connor continued glowering at his supposed friend until Marcus just shook his head and shrugged.

"Don't you have a rebellion against the machines to oversee, John? Unless you're waiting to see that tattoo."

With a grumble of disgust, Connor got up and left Marcus alone with his thoughts. He was thinking that he'd have to find his nephew soon and have his own talk with Walker. His nephew had been putting in some serious effort at avoiding him since their first meeting, nearly eight months ago. He'd managed to make friends with Kyle and half the rest of the base, but completely avoid Marcus and Blair.


	3. Fish

Fish and Good News

Kyle watched Marcus devour his second baked fish and was reminded of the time he'd watched a swarm of buzzards go after an unfortunate coyote. Marcus' table manners weren't much better then the buzzards'. He was tearing through this fish just as fast as he'd gone through the first one. Fish was the most common meat left, since they'd been the least affected by Judgment Day and the machines. The base being right beside a big river helped keep the supply fresh.

Normally the mess hall limited people strictly to keep the supplies rationed but since Marcus only ate once or twice a week, they were willing to give him extra when he asked for it. Apparently his hybrid body needed complex proteins or something, Kyle had not listened when Kate was explaining, to regenerate any organic tissue when Marcus was wounded. The result was that if he got hurt bad enough, Marcus got really hungry. Really, really hungry.

"I think you missed some, there." Kyle gestured with his fork. His own fish was gone too, but Marcus had been halfway through the second one before Kyle finished.

"Make yourself useful, kid." Marcus muttered through a half-full mouth. He pushed the mostly-empty plate that had held his first fish toward Kyle and waved at the line.

"You can't get your own food?" Kyle took the plate anyway but waited to get up. He gave Marcus a pitying look and shook his head sadly. "Too lazy to get your own fish, man. That's sad."

"I'm three times your age." Which was true, technically. Marcus never missed a chance to pull the old age card, especially not since his 45th birthday two weeks ago. Kyle didn't even want to imagine when Marcus turned fifty. Never mind that his body was eternally twenty-eight and came with superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes and who knew what else.

"Go get the fish." Marcus emphasized his point with a jab of his fork.

"Yeah, yeah." Plate in hand the younger man made his way to the back of the line and shook his head again. Manipulative bastard.

"Hey man, what the hell?" the drawling voice cut through Kyle's mild flirting with the girl handing out the baked fish. Her name was Shauna Mayes and she had the nicest green eyes, but Kyle didn't see himself getting involved. He was just having fun and Shauna knew it. "You already got one."

It was one of the Texans that had been transferred over last week. Kyle couldn't remember which one.

Kyle and Shauna answered at the same time "It isn't for me."

"It isn't for him."

The Texan's eyes found the table where Kyle had been sitting and locked on Marcus. The cyborg was oblivious to what was going on, still munching away.

"The fucking machine gets three damn fish?" the soldier's lip curled when he said _machine_, he knew most of the Californians didn't like it when people called Marcus a machine. "What the hell does it need food for?"

"He gets as many fish as he wants when he gets hurt taking fire for a medic and two wounded." Shauna fixed the Texan soldier with her green gaze, daring him to protest. He took her up on the dare.

"It's a machine, it's not like the bullets really hurt it. Just scuffed the paint, right?" His sneer was almost enough to make Kyle lose his temper.

"Shut your mouth." Kyle kept his voice calm, not without some effort. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about and you're holding up the line."

"Right. Wouldn't want the machine to get mad at you, would you? Probably wondering why it's taking so long for its pet to fetch its dinner."

By now the others standing in line were paying attention, as were some of the soldiers at the nearer tables. Marcus either hadn't noticed or was waiting to see what happened. Kyle assumed the latter. He didn't care. He handed Shauna the plate and swept his foot through the Texan's ankles. The bigger man crashed to the floor and Kyle followed him down.

Before Kyle could get in more then a few shots he was yanked to his feet by a familiar hand and then promptly thrown back onto his ass several feet distant from where he'd been just a second ago. The Texan was still struggling in Marcus' grip until Marcus' now-free hand wrapped around his throat and cut off his air supply.

"Got your attention?" Marcus was not having trouble controlling his emotions. If anything, he sounded bored. The strangled noise the Texan made could have meant anything, but Marcus took it for confirmation. "Good. You can say whatever you want to about me. Don't cause problems and I won't stop you. I won't even notice. Cause problems and I'll take care of it."

When Marcus let the soldier go he staggered back, clutching his throat and coughing violently. None of the other soldiers in the room protested in the slightest. One gave a short round of applause. As the Texan stumbled out of the door, everyone went back to their food. Shauna shook her head and resumed handing out fish. She tossed Marcus an apple, which he caught and pocketed.

Kyle was rubbing at his sore tailbone and coming to his feet when Marcus took him by the arm and spun him around until he was nose-to-nose with an angry-looking cyborg. Kyle stopped moving and had to remind himself to breathe. He knew, logically, that Marcus would not hurt him. At least not badly. His natural instinct though, faced with that stare, was to put as much distance between it and himself as he could.

"Next time you start a fight over stupid shit like that, Kyle, I'll bruise more then your ass or your pride. As long as they aren't causing trouble, it doesn't matter what anyone says."

"But –"

"I haven't decided if you'd rather have me start reporting you to Connor or just take it out of your hide myself. When I do figure it out, you aren't going to like it. Connor wasn't happy to hear about your last fight. This one's going to piss him off even more."

Kyle swallowed. He thought that he'd been able to keep word of the scuffles from reaching John Connor.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." He raised his eyes to meet Marcus' stare and saw the satisfaction there, then a flash of humor.

"Good. I didn't want to have to beat your ass, kid. It'd make me feel like I was kicking a puppy."

Still trying to decide if he should be insulted by that, Kyle followed Marcus out of the mess hall.

"Where're you going?" He'd almost run into a wall when he expected Marcus to turn right and head toward the vehicle hangers where they'd been working on taking apart a captured T-1 before lunch.

"Blair's getting her test results from Kate today. I told her I'd be there."

"Test results? Something's wrong with Blair?"

"Hope not. She's been feeling funny for a few days, since she got back from her last patrol. Kate wanted to be sure that she hadn't been infected by a Skynet bug or one of the mutant plagues."

Kyle shuddered at the thought of Blair exposed to any of the hideous diseases that the nuclear apocalypse had spawned, or the engineered human killers from Skynet.

"Go on to the hanger, I'll be there in an hour or so. Blair's gunna be fine, probably just caught the flu or something." Marcus grinned and gave a light shove pushing Kyle toward the right hallway.

When Marcus walked into the infirmary, he stopped short to assess the situation. Blair was sitting next to Kate and both women were staring silently at a clipboard that, presumably, held Blair's test results. Blair looked terribly confused. Kate did not look much better.

"I don't understand myself, Blair." Kate's voice was low even though the women were sitting in Kate's office rather then the patient-filled area outside.

Both of them jumped when Marcus cleared his throat. "What's wrong?"

He took quick steps to put himself behind Blair's chair and put a hand on her shoulder while he read the contents of the clipboard.

"Marcus, I don't know how it happened, I swear I never –" Blair cut off when a dark expression clouded her husband's face.

"That's how it is, then?" Marcus didn't have trouble making his voice angry or intimidating; that was largely his default. "How were you going to break it to me, Blair? What's the back-up plan since it looks to me like you aren't sick at all?"

"I told you, I don't know how!" Blair was scared as well as angry. He hadn't counted on that and he decided to cut short his performance.

Marcus bent down until his face was level with Blair's, despite the low chair she was sitting in. She refused to retreat from him, the same way she always held her ground. He let a slow smile break through on his face and he kissed her just as he saw in her eyes when she noticed the smile.

"If you don't know how it happened, I'm going to have to work on my technique. Obviously I'm not being memorable enough. Maybe I should try – OW!"

Blair's head might not be made out of steel, but it sure felt like it when she slammed her forehead into his nose. A nose that, despite all the improvements made to his cyborg body, was just as soft and prone to pain as any human's.

"How can I be pregnant, Kate? Marcus is the only one I've slept with in nearly two years." Blair was ignoring her husband while he cursed and grabbed a wad of paper towels from the sink on the other side of Kate's office to staunch his nose.

"I never ran a fertility test on him, Blair. I didn't even think about it. He could be the father. It's just a little mind-blowing that he –"

"Hey, I'm right here." Marcus' voice was muffled by the towels, but the women didn't miss the annoyance or insult in his voice. "Fully functioning man, standing right behind you."

Kate turned to face him in her chair, "Are you? Fully functioning, I mean. You know that from the files you took from Skynet about what they did to you?"

"No." Marcus was momentarily confused, he hadn't expected Kate to actually take him at face value. "It stands to reason that if Blair's pregnant and she isn't cheating on me –"

"I'm not!" Blair growled out.

"--then I'm the father. You can run all the tests you want, Kate. I'd be happy to give you a sample." The wicked leer on Marcus' face earned him dire glares from both women and a nasty tweak to his hurt nose from Blair.

"You find out that you're going to be a father and all you can do is make lewd jokes and pretend that you think I've been cheating on you?" Blair got up very slowly, making sure Marcus could follow her every move. The humor in his eyes died as he saw the anger and hurt on her face.

"Blair, you know I –"

"I _don't_ know, Marcus. Do you even want this?" Blair's dark eyes drilled into Marcus. He knew he should have shown more typical reactions. He should have cheered and kissed her, swung her around. He'd been getting better about doing the things he thought normal people would do. It was almost starting to feel natural, being normal. Being a good guy. Walker and all the reminders of his unpleasant past had thrown him off his stride.

Marcus pulled Blair against his chest, hugging her to him and returned her stare. He let himself feel and found that he was happy, as happy as he'd been when Blair walked down the aisle toward him in her combat boots, that fifth-hand wedding dress and Star's bouquet of weeds. He tried to put that happiness into his smile and the kiss he gave her. Judging from the way her eyes brightened, he succeeded at least partly.

"Of course I want to have a kid with you, Blair. I want to do everything with you." He grinned when she raised an eyebrow, "Not like that. Well, not just like that."

He gave Blair another kiss before he let her go.

Kate cleared her throat quietly, getting their attention. "I do want to run some tests on both of you. Just to be sure there's nothing we need to worry about for the baby."

Marcus nodded easily, "Whatever you need to do, Kate. First I'm going to find Star, Kyle and Connor and give them the news."

"John's on his way down here. He wanted to be sure his best pilot wasn't infected with something horrible." Blair gave an over-dramatic sigh. "He only cares about me for my flying."

Marcus laughed and headed for the door. "I'll just catch him on my way to find Kyle and Star then."

Blair took note of the tone in Marcus' voice and wondered what John Connor had done to have Marcus planning something mean for him.

The two women were going over the sort of tests Kate wanted to run on Blair and Marcus when they heard Marcus' happy bellow out in the hallway and Connor's congratulations. Connor's voice cut off in a strangled huff of air. Two minutes later Marcus was helping a wheezing Connor to a bed in the infirmary where Kate gently tested his sides and predicted minor bruising to three or four ribs. She gave Marcus a dark glance as she handed her husband a pair of big blue pills and then went to work wrapping his torso. Connor suspected he'd have bruises in the shape of Marcus' arms for a week.

"He hugged me first." Marcus was claiming that he hadn't realized until John was pounding on his back that he was a bit too rough with the more fragile man.

Connor's voice was a bit slurred from the fast-acting drugs, "If you _ever_ do that to me again, I better be in full body armor. Or you can just wait" Connor paused again, trying to think of a suitable time, "half an hour before you try giving me any more good news, damn it."

Marcus' expression of concern cracked momentarily with a grin before he hid it again. "I'll remember that, Connor."


	4. Lullabies

Lullabies

Kyle cursed himself for oversleeping. He'd promised Blair that he'd watch Tyler until Marcus was off-duty. Allison would be watching him, she loved kids and was always happy to baby sit, but she'd had him all day and she had her own watch to get to. She'd probably have some words for him when he got there.

Two more turns and he was on the corridor where Blair and Marcus' quarters were. He came to a halt outside their door as his brain finally caught up with his ears and he realized he was hearing singing from inside. The door was a bit ajar, letting a deep male voice leak into the hallway.

Smoke very nearly started rising from Kyle's ears as his brain scrambled to figure out what it was processing. He'd never heard Marcus sing, he couldn't even imagine Marcus singing, but that sure was what his ears told him was going on.

_"…an' if that mockin' bird don' sing,_

_Pappa's gunna buy you a diamon' ring._

_An' if that diamon' ring turns brass,_

_Pappa's gunna buy you a lookin' glass."_

Kyle's feet dragged him to the door which he slowly pushed open. He looked inside carefully, wondering if Marcus would appreciate interruption.

"Marcus?"

The singing cut off with a soft laugh and the dark-haired man holding baby Tyler turned around, shaking his head.

"You think my uncle can sing, Reese? I'd trade a bottle of good beer to hear that."

"_Walker_?! What're you doing here?"  
"Keep your voice down." And Kyle quieted his voice, just like that. In some cases, there wasn't much difference between the technician and the cyborg. Both of them could spit you with a glare that would wither plants and kill small animals at will. "I'm keeping an eye on my cousin until you got here. Allison had to report for her watch, she radioed me to come take over."

Walker put Tyler to bed while Kyle watched, still confused and trying to process events. For his sanity, he was relieved he hadn't found Marcus singing lullabies but then, he didn't really want to think might happen to him if Blair or Marcus found out that his oversleeping had left their son in the hands of Marcus' estranged nephew. Despite the fact that Tyler seemed to like his cousin just fine and Walker was doing a better job handling him then Kyle had yet to manage.

"I won't mention to Uncle Marcus that I was here if you won't, Reese." Walker must have been reading his mind, Kyle thought to himself.

"Why do you do that, Walker?" the question popped out before Kyle got enough control of his brain back to prevent it. He'd been trying for months _not_ to get involved in whatever was going on between Walker and Marcus. It was hard enough with Walker somehow becoming his friend and Marcus being, well, Marcus. Kyle didn't really have a word for what Marcus was. More then a friend, less then a father figure, though he'd been that a few times too.

"Do what? Sing? Cover for you?" Walker flashed his smile, the bright and cheerful one that never fully reached his eyes. You only noticed that if you watched closely enough, though.

"Avoid Marcus and Blair. You don't mind taking care of Tyler, but you don't want them to know you were even here?"

Walker shrugged, "I don' have anythin' particular 'gainst Major Williams. She seems nice an' all, but it's hard to avoid someone if you go makin' friends with their wife. I got enough trouble avoiding Uncle Marcus."

"What's so bad about Marcus? He's a hero, man. He saved John Connor and –"

"I know all the heroic stuff, Reese. I've near had my ears worn off with people tellin' me all the great thin's he's done."

"So how come you hate him?"

Walker blinked and his smile faded away, replaced with confusion. "I don' hate him. I never said I did. I ain't heard anyone else say I do neither."

"Then why do you work so hard to avoid him? I've seen the kind of things you do to swap duty rotations that'd have you working the same shift as Marcus or how you'll do just about anything to avoid a mission with him."

"I'm gunna put this very simply: Marcus Wright used to hurt people. No matter how many good deeds you rack up, whatever made you do that in the first place, it's still there inside you. I don' wanna be around when it shows its head again."

Kyle shook his head at Walker, "No, no, Marcus isn't like that. He wouldn't hurt someone without a good reason. He told me about those cops, they started shooting first."

"I wasn' talkin' about the cops he murdered, Reese. I grew up 'round folks that knew Marcus Wright back when they were young. He was a nasty piece of work, even Mom couldn' find any other way to say it. She never tried to deny it either. Uncle Marcus mighta had reasons for hurtin' folks, but they weren't always good ones. Even when they were, he hurt folks _bad_."

"He's different now," Kyle shook his head again but this time he was trying to convince himself more then Walker. "I've never seen him do anything really wrong."

"Well, what's right and wrong's a bit different now the world ended, ain't it? Least that's what I hear. I don't remember much about before myself and I'm older then you are. Uncle Marcus might have changed, Reese, but he's still the same guy that beat my Mom's first boyfriend so bad the guy wears fake teeth cause he didn't have enough left to be worth savin'. He's lucky he's a programmer, cause he'd never make it as a soldier on those crutches either. Uncle Marcus broke something in his back; his legs don't work right."

Kyle swallowed. He'd seen Barnes and his friends in the infirmary after Marcus got through with them. It wasn't that he had trouble believing Marcus was able to do things like that to people.

"He had a reason, though, right?"

"Pete cheated on Mom and when she found out, she humiliated him in front of the whole town so he punched her out. I guess you could say Uncle Marcus had a reason for taking a bit out of Pete's hide." Walker shrugged again.

"I'm not tellin' you not to trust him, or that he ain't changed. I know all about the stuff he's done for you an' Star an' the Resistance. I know he's been a good daddy for Star and he's looked after you too when you needed it. I still don't want to be in the way when he goes lookin' for the first guy that breaks Star's heart or the next idiot that tries to raise a ruckus about a cyborg bein' a Major."

Walker might have a point there, Kyle was forced to concede. Marcus' reactions weren't always in line with what other people might consider appropriate. Still, the worst Marcus had done since Kyle had known him was beating Barnes and his friends. As far as he was concerned they'd deserved every bruise and broken bone that Marcus had given them.

"I think he's changed more then you give him credit for, Walker. Marcus has some issues, yeah, but he's a good guy inside. He really is."

It was Walker's turn to shake his head. "There's somethin' in him, Reese, that I don' ever wanna see. He might have it caged up, but it's still there."

Kyle suddenly realized that Walker wasn't just talking about Marcus. Walker was afraid that whatever had driven Marcus to violent extremes in his old life was inside him too. Maybe he had reasons to be afraid of that. He was avoiding his uncle because he was afraid of what he might see in himself, not just in Marcus.

"It isn't like Uncle Marcus has been tryin' too hard to have a heart to heart with me anyway, Reese. I've got duty in half an hour. Just don't fall asleep before Uncle Marcus gets back."

Watching Walker leave, Kyle pondered. Walker and Marcus made a fine pair. Walker didn't want to see his uncle because he was afraid of some dark madness that was lurking inside both of them. Marcus avoided his nephew because, and now Kyle was guessing but he was fairly sure of it, Walker reminded Marcus of that darkness and Marcus wanted to keep it buried well and good.

Kyle shook his head and sighed as he settled in to wait the few hours until Marcus was off-duty. Maybe they were right and avoiding each other was the best thing for them. Marcus could try to forget about what he had been and concentrate on what he was now. Walker wouldn't have to think about what might be lurking in the shadows of his brain, waiting to jump out at him. Kyle snorted. Maybe it was a good idea to ignore Star when she gave him that look that said she felt machines coming.


	5. Continuity Note

Author's Note

There may be some confusion regarding how my stories fit together. This should help clear it up. All my Terminator stories are in the same timeline which takes place after Salvation and follows the events of the movie almost-exactly. They can be considered an Alternate Universe since Marcus doesn't die, but that's explained in the stories.

I don't just post all the stories together as one fic because they're distinct to me. They can be read alone, or together. They're meant to be read together, though. I also split them apart because sometimes I get stuck on one chapter in one story, so I jump to another story where I'm not feeling so confined.

1975 – Marcus and Alicia Wright born in Abilene, Texas – August 22nd

1970 – Tyler Wright born

2001 – Thomas Walker born

2002 – Kyle Reese born

2003 – Marcus Wright executed

2003-2004 – Dr. Serena Kogen dies of cancer

July 25th, 2004 – Judgment Day

2010 – Derek and Kyle Reese separated in LA tunnels

2011 – Derek Reese joins the Resistance

2012 – Kyle Reese finds Star (Star is 5 years old)

2018 – Events of Terminator: Salvation

**Transplant Tent – March 15****th**

**FleshGrowBack Lab – March 15****th**

**Being a Good Guy – May 18****th**

2019 – Sarah Jeanette Connor born

2020

**Wedding Rings and Combat Boots – February 4****th**

**Her Machine Gun Man – February 5****th**

**Mistakes Made – March 10****th**

**Letter – March 25****th**

**Fish – May 2****nd**

Tyler Wright-Williams born – December 3rd

2021

**Lullabies – April 20****th**

**Wounded – July 21****st**

2022

**Safe**

Robert Connor born

2023

**WHAM! (Entrapment) – February 2****nd**

2024 – Korinna Wright-Williams born

2028

**Wait Half An Hour For Good News – January 15****th**

Kyle Connor born (October)

2029

**Kyle's Fate – March 3****rd**

Kyle Reese sent back to save Sarah Connor

2032

John Connor dies – July 4th

Skynet's last command hub is destroyed – July 5th

**The Fate We Made – July 6****th**


End file.
